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Split aims for three million passengers in 2018

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Split Airport anticipates handling three million passengers in 2018, with the construction of its new terminal building progressing on schedule. General Manager, Lukša Novak, noted, "It took us ten years to grow from one million to two million travellers. Before the war, the airport was handling around a million passengers per year. However, it took us just three years to increase our figures from two million travellers to 2.8 million. In 2018 we will handle three million passengers". He added, "The increase is being fuelled by the growth in tourism, as well as Croatia's entry into the European Union. Security issues in other holiday hotspots have also aided the figures. Over the past five years we have been recording double digit growth".

Next year is expected to be the last Split Airport faces capacity constraints with 30% of work on its new passenger terminal already completed. "An investment of this magnitude is undertaken once every thirty years. The last time we expanded the terminal was in 2005 but the facility itself was built for the 1979 Mediterranean Games in Split. In any case, this is a complex investment taking place over an area of almost 80.000 square metres, with the terminal taking up 35.000 square metres. Upon completion in 2019, the entire terminal complex will spread over 48.000 square metres, which is comparable to our counterparts in Zagreb and Dubrovnik. It will satisfy our needs for the next twenty years, with some minor modifications inside the building", Mr Novak said.

The new terminal building will feature thirty check-in desks, six gates, a new automated baggage sorting facility and five carousels, while the gallery will boast restaurants, an observation deck and the business class lounge. The main floor will be circular in shape with natural sunlight coming in from glass sections of the roof. The overhaul of the existing terminal building will commence once the new one is completed and opened. The old terminal will be joined with the new facility to form a single unit (as pictured in the first photo) and will be used by non-schengen zone passengers. Furthermore, Split Airport plans to overhaul its runway, build a parallel taxiway and expand the apron in 2019, which should reduce congestion. A new car park and bus terminal, which have the capacity to accommodate 900 vehicles over an area of 35.500 square metres, have already been completed, while an enclosed pedestrian overbridge linking the area with the terminal building over the state road is currently under construction. Furthermore, the new terminal building is already taking shape. The entire investment is estimated to be worth some 59.7 million euros.

Rendering of Split Airport's new terminal

Split Airport registered a record 2.782.033 passengers during the January - November period, an increase of 23.1% on last year. It has cemented its position as the third busiest airport in the former Yugoslavia and was ahead of its counterpart in Zagreb for several months during 2017. However, Mr Novak noted that Split has no ambitions to surpass Zagreb Airport's traffic figures and become the country's busiest. To the contrary, the airport won't encourage airlines to operate night flights once it opens for 24-hour use next year, nor will it seek transatlantic services. "We want to be an effective regional airport. We need to work to stimulate traffic in the winter months", the General Manager said. A number of carriers have so far scheduled new seasonal flights to Croatia's second largest city for next year including SAS Scandinavian Airlines, airBaltic, Thomas Cook Airlines, Volotea, Smartwings and Jet2.

It’s probably not worth the hassle and could actually be an inconvenience when you look at how much ramp space a regular wide body would take up.... maybe they know that any translantic service would want to operate during the times when the airport is at its busiest. The way the ramp is set up they could lose parking positions for 2-3 aircraft and when you consider the longer turn around time they could lose up to 6 aircraft movements to accomodate a trans Atlantic A330 so they could actually lose money on it. If ramp space was not an issue than I’m sure they would be considering it.

The night flight comment... here I think he is just making sure he keeps his neighbours (the people of Kaštela and Trogir) from freaking out.

Excellent progress so far, no doubt it will handle 3 million pax in 2018. They should definitely attract more carriers to fly there year round (if OU survives, they should do something about it, base a plane in Split). I'm surprised they are not interested in TATL flights, I'm sure it would work during the season.

But all the gates of the existing terminal will continue to be used - so in the end it will be some 15 gates at SPU, that should be enough.

Air bridges are simply not needed, nor wanted. Boarding is 10 metres from the gate door - and always both doors of the aircraft front and back are used - if air bridges would be used boarding and deboarding both take 5 mins more meaning turn around times of min. 45 instead of 35 mins - that is something a congested airport/apron really doesn't need.

It is foolish to go for large numbers in a small city like Split is. I live in Trogir and it is horrible to witness all those planes flying in and out during summer. Obviously our voice needs to be heard much louder.

The Croatian Minister for Sea, Transport and Infrastructure noted that this will be preceded by a 2.6 million euro investment in the airport's infrastructure next year, which will include upgrades to the passenger terminal and apron.

Can't agree on that, and I live in Dubrovnik. Split airport has a far larger catchment area and that's a fact. Split, also, needs more hotels, unlike Dubrovnik which is overcrowded during summer months.

I certainly would not want either Split or Trogir to become like Dubrovnik. We don't want these cities to become empty shells used only for tourism. We want to live in our cities and for that tourism needs to be limited and regulated reducing the number of pax at SPU.

But that is both in relation to mass tourism from cruise ships and cannot be compared to air travel where you get in average no more than 180 tourists from a new arrival - compsred to more than 5,000 passengers from a cruiser who of course overcrowd a city immediately as they all come at once and not slowly/gradually like from airplanes.

This is horrible news for the local community! Luckily there are ways to limit this megalomania and remain within sustainable limits which have been surpassed already. Why don't all those excess flights go to ZAD instead of creating a chaos in Trogir and surrounding areas? Obviously the taxes are too low, perhaps the local politicians should push for an increase of those.

They should build a new airport but in some uninhabited area near Split. This location is inconvenient not only because of very limited possibilities of future development, but also because of the fact that it's basically in the middle of an inhabited area. It's hard for me to even imagine how irritating is for most locals around the airport to witness the dense traffic during summer. Airports like Split shouldn't be built anywhere near the city, as they become zoos during the season. And this is just the beginning, Split might even be handling 6-7 million passengers by 2025, which would mean at least 40 000 (!!!) passengers in a single day during summer. The new airport should have at least 25 gates with many opportunities to expand to be able to accommodate all the future traffic.

The airport is well situated close to the city but not inside of it, next to the national 4 lane road and close to the tourist areas/rivieras.Only thing they really need to build now is a parallel taxiway and there are no unsolvable land issues there.

I expect ZAD will grow rapidly in the coming years and that will limit the need for expansion at SPU. A realistic target at SPU should be up to 3.5 million pax with a more even distribution throughout the year. I expect that peaks in summer months will not grow and might even start to decline as ZAD takes those excess numbers in the coming years.

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